Renee proud of team performance in Brighton win | Interview | News

Renee Slegers was pleased with the team effort that got us over the line in our 1-0 win over Brighton in the WSL on Sunday.

Olivia Smith’s first-half cross was deflected into the net in the 16th minute for the only goal of the contest, and Renee was delighted to get back to winning ways.

“I think we started well and we spent a lot of time in their half. We got the goal in the first half, I think the most important thing today was the three points.

“Of course, everyone knows that results haven’t come easy to us the last couple of games, so everything that we wanted today was three points and we got three points.

“I think there’s some good moments in the game and there’s some moments we can do better, want to do better, but most importantly, we won today and we got the three points.”

The clean sheet today was just our second in all competitions this season, and Renee felt that this came down to a team effort.

Despite the team effort, we wouldn’t have kept our clean sheet without an outstanding save from Daphne Van Domselaar on the hour mark.

“A clean sheet is always a team performance, but Daph was really important in the big moments.

“She had such a good game today, so she was important for the team.”

We gained more control of the game after a triple change which saw Beth Mead, Stina Blackstenius and Kyra Cooney-Cross introduced, with the latter making the biggest impact on the game.

Renee praised her substitutes, emphasising the importance of both starters and finishers.

“We know we have great starters and we have great finishers. You always play different roles, sometimes if you start a game you have to set the tone and you have to work it down and if you come on, there’s bigger spaces and we know exactly what we want to exploit.

“Kyra was great today, she was so good with the ball carrying, her forward intent, her forward passes, so she did really, really well, I’m pleased.”

With victory secured in our final league match before the international break, we head to Portugal on Thursday to face Benfica, a game Renee is looking forward to.

“We do of course (look forward to it). We’re very proud to be active in the Champions League, so of course we look forward to Benfica.” 

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